Box Score
Luckily, you can only lose once per game.
Kyle Harrison struggled badly tonight, and by the time he was removed from the game with two outs in the fourth inning, things were already wildly out of control. On the other side, Clay Holmes came in as one of the hottest starting pitchers in baseball, and this one was decided early.
Holmes got started things off with back-to-back strikeouts of Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio for which he needed only seven pitches, none of which were balls. Jake
Bauers drew a walk—but blew a challenge in the process—and William Contreras lined out to left to end the inning.
The white-hot Pete Crow-Armstrong led things off for the Cubs; you could tell how well he’s getting around on things when he blasted a fastball up and foul down the right-field line, but Harrison struck him out a couple pitches later. Harrison, whose fastball velocity was in the low 90s in the first inning, couldn’t find the zone against Seiya Suzuki and walked him on five pitches, but Harrison picked up the second out on a popout in foul territory by Alex Bregman.
Unfortunately, Harrison then left sluggish fastballs right over the middle to both Tyrone Taylor and Nico Hoerner, and back-to-back homers gave the Cubs an early 3-0 lead. Michael Busch then ripped a double into the right-field corner and Carson Kelly jumped on the first pitch for an RBI single up the middle, and Harrison was in serious danger of not making it out of the first inning on this steamy Chicago night. Miguel Amaya finally did fly out to end the inning, but the Cubs had jumped all over Harrison and had an early 4-0 lead.
With one out in the second, the Brewers got their first hit, a Garrett Mitchell single up the middle (at 112 mph—Mitchell continues to hit it hard when he hits it). Things went poorly after that, though: with Mitchell running on a 3-2 count, Sal Frelick struck out looking—on a pitch that was outside the zone—and Mitchell was thrown out at second. It was a rough start for the good guys.
Harrison got two quick outs in the second, but Suzuki ripped a single into left and another Harrison meatball to Bregman ended up in the bleachers again, making it 6-0 Cubs. He just couldn’t locate the fastball tonight, but instead of missing outside the zone, he was doing something much worse: missing right down the middle. Taylor grounded out to end the inning, but the Brewers were in a deep hole against a locked-in pitcher.
For the second straight inning, the Brewers hit into an unconventional double play. After a one-out single from Cooper Pratt, Turang grounded one to Busch at first, who stepped on the bag and threw to second, where Pratt was tagged out.
In a good encapsulation of the Brewers’ night, Hoerner hit an easy ground ball to Bauers at first to start the bottom of the third, and Bauers booted it, fell down, tried to shuffle the ball to Harrison, and instead bounced the ball off the base while Harrison wiped out. Hoerner was safe, and Harrison got a visit from the trainer, though he stayed in the game; after a fly out to left, Kelly blooped a single to center and set up the Cubs to score again. Harrison was able to work out of the jam, though; with runners on the corners and one out, Harrison struck out Amaya and got Matt Shaw to ground out to first.
The Brewers were showing very few signs of being able to work their way back into the game. Chourio started the fourth with a “bad Chourio” strikeout in which strike three came on a pitch way out of the zone. Bauers reached for the second time when he lined a single up the middle with one out, and Contreras walked to put the first real pressure on Holmes that the Brewers had managed on the night. Unfortunately, Yelich and Mitchell both struck out chasing outside the zone, and the fleeting chance went by the wayside.
Bauers made a highlight-reel catch to rob PCA of a hit to start the bottom of the fourth, but things went bad again after that. Suzuki inflicted pain on Harrison in a different way—this one was at least not a bad pitch, but Suzuki went with it to the opposite field for a solo shot. Bregman, up next, did get a bad pitch, and demolished it, and the Cubs were up eight.
The trouble didn’t end there for Harrison, who was firmly in “wearing it” mode Taylor singled and Hoerner drew a 12-pitch walk; Harrison stayed in to face Busch, who he struck out, but was taken out with two outs in the bottom of the fourth with eight runs in and two runners on. Out of the bullpen was Chad Patrick… who couldn’t throw strikes. His first eight pitches all missed, most of them quite badly, and the Cubs had another run. Patrick finally found the strike zone against Shaw, and a fly ball ended the inning with the Cubs up 9-0.
There wasn’t much else to write home about. In the seventh, Cooper Pratt hit a two-run homer. DL Hall allowed one to Kelly, which made it an eight-run lead, allowing the Brewers to move to a position player on the mound. Tonight, that was Andrew Vaughn, who took over in the bottom of the seventh. The peculiar infield lineup also handed Joey Ortiz his debut as a first baseman.
Vaughn’s first pitch, a 47 mph “knuckle ball,” hit Amaya, and things went about as you’d expect from there. Chicago picked up three more runs off of Vaughn, Colin Rea gave one back in the eighth (a Chourio double followed by a Vaughn single), and Chicago got four more in the eighth. By the end of the inning, they had nine homers—a franchise record. The game mercifully ended at 17-3.
Yeah, let’s flush that one and move on to tomorrow!
